22 Minute Hard Corps Mountain Squats...Easiest Exercise Ever?

Last Updated Jan20, 2018 By Elizabeth Ibarra

The 22-minute hard corps workout by Tony Horton introduced to us something horrendously amazing — mountain squats. If you’ve done them already, then you know what I mean. There is a reason they make fantastic claims about their workout regimen because it really works you to death.

The program itself is given to you in just 22-minute segments, but in that short time, they put you through an intense boot camp of health and introduce you to exercises that are real gems.

We know you are always looking for the next terrible thing to do to your body to make yourself stronger, more agile, more stable, and happier. Mountain squats can help you get there.What is a Mountain Squat?For those of you who haven’t already experienced the torture, here is the list of steps for the exercise:

1. Start standing upright holding a weight of your choice in one of your hands keeping your elbow at your side and the weight up to your shoulder..2. Move to a squatting position with your bottom as low to the ground as you can get it in a natural way. 3. From there, use your core muscles to move yourself to a completely flat supine position. (that means on your back, facing up.)4. When your body is completely flat and straight, use your core again to move back to a standing position.5. Make sure to squeeze them cheeks to get yourself all the way upright again.6. Once you’re halfway through your set, switch the weight to the other side.

Honestly, it sounds like a really simple routine; Sit down, lay down, and stand up, but trust me, it’s not as easy as you think. Do a few sets of these bad boys and you’ll quickly see what I’m talking about. Some people struggle to do just one mountain squat with good form. Remember, form is important. Try your best to do this without wobbling at all.

The best part? Even if you’re already a beast, and you can do hundreds of mountain squats without breaking a sweat, you can always up the difficulty; simply add more weight. Why Mountain Squats?You can find mountain squats featured as part of the “Resistance 3” section of the 22-minute Hard Corps workout regimen. It is included within the other resistance workouts that generally are considered “functional fitness” exercises.

To understand why mountain squats are just so cool, we need to know what functional fitness is. So, what is it? Functional fitness focuses on training the muscles in your body to work together naturally. It prepares you to accomplish daily tasks or tasks you might encounter naturally, with more ease and less exhaustion. Functional strength allows you to survive.

Not only will mountain squats give you sexy abs and a nice booty, it challenges your balance, coordination, the range of motion, and strength.

Mountain squats train you for life.

We hope you take a shot at mountain squats, do them with good form, make sure you are using a weight that makes it a little difficult, and really benefit from it.

Train that booty; train those abs; train your life, just don't end up like this kid...​